Reykjavík Grapevine - 01.06.2018, Blaðsíða 14

Estranged is a new, mobile magazine
project by local photographer Kaspars
Bekeris and Matthias Boyer. You might
know the work of Kaspars from his
exhibition during last summer’s Pride,
titled F*CK GENDER. Its intimate
portraits of Reykjavík’s drag royalty
have remained since suspended from
the ceiling of Gaukurinn ever since.
As for Matthias, you’d be more likely
to recognize him by his drag persona,
Strell Ytzia, who has blossomed this
year into one of Reykjavík’s most excit-
ing new performers at both Drag-Súgur
and House of Strike. Now they’re team-
ing up to combine the two things they
do best into one: a multimedia project,
focussed on a print magazine, about
queens, queers, and quelling preju-
dice. They let us in on what the project
is and what they’d like it to become.
We are family
“Like every best thing in our lives, it
happened kind of as an accident,”
Kaspars begins, when asked how the
project came about. He himself was a
newcomer to drag before he arrived
in Iceland in 2016, but was quickly
inducted into the scene. “The first
drag show I saw was here. I was fully
blown away by this kind welcome from
the drag scene. From the very begin-
ning I felt so welcome and I'd seen the
potential to be a part of this family.”
But it wasn’t just the community
itself that caught his attention. “The
thing I was expecting before I went
to the show was all of these extrava-
gant looks – all the glitter and glamour
and of course there was lot of that,” he
says. “But the more I got to know the
people, the more I was struck by the
political dimension of drag, which for
me as a journalist and as a documen-
tary photographer, is so, so important.”
Drag explosion
Although he only arrived in 2017,
Matthias also got his start in drag here
in Reykjavík. “I'd already wanted to try
drag but I wasn't sure if it was for me,”
he explains. “So my first step into the
drag world was Kaspar’s exhibition. He
already knew so many people in the drag
community.” With Matthias perform-
ing and Kaspar’s documenting, they
were experiencing the drag world from
inside and out. “So when I met Matthias,
we realised that there are so many life
stories here. There are so many expe-
riences which could be told and must
be told, for so many reasons, that we
decided to do just that,” Kaspars says.
Drag has exploded in Reykjavík
in the last few years, going from one
annual competition to a full-blown
arts scene within just a few years, with
drag-related events now happening
around Reykjavík
on a weekly basis.
“The idea of the
magazine is that
we want to really
d o c u m e n t t h i s
moment in Iceland,
which is such a
great moment for
drag,” Kaspars says.
In addition to its
growth, Matthias
notes the flavour
of Reykjavík’s drag
community. “There
are a few things that
are a bit unique here.
Compared with how
the drag scene is
internationally and especially in the
United States, a female drag queen or a
straight guy with a child doing drag or
trans person doing drag is not a prob-
lem. These are the kinds of profiles
that lead to this diversity that is unique
in the drag scene here in Iceland.”
It’s because of this diversity of
experience and identity that, while
they want to document this personal
moment for Reykjavík’s community,
they also want to go a little deeper.
Form of resistance
They want to take an intersectional
approach to the project. “By intersec-
tional, we mean that there are so many
different profiles in which you can see
so many different forms of discrimina-
tion,” Matthias says. “What is interest-
ing with drag is that this is an artistic
form of expression and entertainment
which, for so many people, is a form
of resistance and a way to escape from
the kinds of discrimination that they
can experience. So with our magazine,
we’re trying to explore as much as we
can to highlight which kinds of issues
they face and how they respond to it.”
So while the first issue centres on
the experiences of the queens, kings,
and queers of Reykjavík, the second
issue will be coming out of Paris. Each
issue going forward will focus on differ-
ent countercultural communities, and
their intersections. “Our ambition is
to provide more perspectives on how
we can make society all together,”
Matthias elaborates, “so talking about
humans but also their environment
and therefore animals as well. I think
it would provide a new dynamic if we
can include the vegan community.”
Countercultural
connections
It’s this emphasis on countercultures
and their connections that gives the
magazine its name, Estranged. “It is my
personal opinion,” Kaspars confides,
“that everyone can meet some form
of discrimination in their lives, and
unfortunately some people stand
in the intersection of discrimina-
tion and oppression. Although some
are more fortunate than others,  I
think everyone can relate to this idea
that we should know more about
which things in society are not work-
ing and how we can change those.”
This theme has tinged the documen-
tary work already
d o n e w i t h t h e
community. “What
we see precisely
in the interviews,”
Matthias says, “is
that this is from
the experience of
people who are
estranged from
this society. It can
be in ever yday
social practices or
it can even be in
our imagination
because there are
so many biases that
are in films and
books and every-
thing is participating in our imagination.”
Drag immersion
By publishing the photos, interviews,
drawings, and writing of the queer
community, it’s meant to be a look
inside as well as outside. “It’s meant
to be personal for those who would
read it as well,” Kaspars continues.
“We don’t want to be sensational,
reach the widest audience possible, or
any of these other diseases of modern
media. We just want this media which
is thought provoking and creates
some kind of involvement or result.”
They have a crowdfunding campaign
running now to finance the publish-
ing of the first issue and an upcom-
ing drag show in support, starring
Stell Ytzia, on June 7th. It’ll be their
final performance here in Reykjavík.
“Because this is a kind of immersion
in the drag community for this issue,
of course the format of what we’re
doing will evolve according to which
community we are in for each issue,”
Matthias explains about the show.
And for the second, vegan-focused
issue of Estranged? “It’ll be a cook-
ing show!” Kaspars jokes. “These
are the kinds of surprises that we
are totally open to,” Matthias agrees.
Although they have high hopes,
the project keeps close to its origins.
“Our aim is to try to grasp as wide a
spectrum of drag artists as possi-
ble,” Kaspars concludes. “We’ve tried
to reach out to everyone and include
them to create this feeling that we
are all doing this together. For our
community and for everyone.”
When You’re Estranged
Reykjavík’s special edition drag mag
Words: Grayson Del Faro Photo: Kaspars Bekeris
14 The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 09 — 2018

Info:
Join Estranged’s
funding campaign
at igg.me/at/
supportestr-
angedmag.
Attend their
utopian fundraiser
at Gaukurinn on
June 7th. Follow
the magazine at
facebook.com/
estrangedmag.
“Everyone can
meet some form
of discrimination
in their lives, and
unfortunately some
people stand in
the intersection of
discrimination and
oppression.”
Kaspars Bekeris documents Reykjavík's queer scene